A Practice that Protects the Heart
November 24, 2024
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I wish I had the luxury of slipping quietly downstairs in the morning to get a cup of coffee and take it back upstairs to enjoy while I read my Bible and pray for a while. This is my favorite way to start the day before things get going full force.
Everyone else in the house can slip downstairs, but not me.
As soon as my little dog hears my footsteps, he whines to be let out and fed. No one else’s footsteps produce the same effect, just mine!
So I let him out and feed him before I feed myself.
Recently I padded barefoot into the garage to grab a pouch of wet dog food and two biscuits, as I do every morning. This particular day, however, my foot picked up a microscopic piece of glass. When I say microscopic, I couldn’t see it; I could only feel the glass as ran my finger gently over the back of my big toe.
In an instant, I could not walk!
Hobbling on my right heel, I fed the dog and made my way awkwardly back upstairs to grab tweezers and get near a bright floor lamp.
I still couldn’t see the glass, I could only feel its effects.
The only thing I could see was a reflection of the light off the glass if I positioned my toe at just the right angle. I aimed the tweezers toward the glimmer….and I got it. Once in my tweezers, I still couldn’t see the glass. I could only feel it as a piece of grit.
The tiny shard mattered.
In an instant, all of my plans for coffee, medicine and breakfast ceased. That little speck of clear polished sand had my full attention until remedied.
My sin immediately disables.
Do I dare think that my little “private” sins in my little tiny life within the globe-sized body of Christ don’t hurt anyone else? Who am I fooling?
When I sin, I cause the Body of Christ to instantly hobble.
Think about how much a paper cut annoys, or a piece of dust in our eye causes agony, or a tickle in our throat causes coughing. In those moments when I decide to gossip, or lie, or spend time overeating to heal my emotions instead of letting God heal them, the Body of Christ feels the effect. I may think I am getting away with something because no one else knows, or know one else saw, but in those moments the body of Christ is not shining as brilliantly because of me.
Because of me.
…so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
Romans 9:1
How I live my life matters. How you live your life matters. Don’t believe me? Take it from God’s word, and a tiny bit of glass on a garage floor.
Picture Explanation: These two young adults still play soccer every week on an all men’s adult team (except for the one female) and they still win championships (thus the trophy).
© 2019 by Oaks Ministries. All rights reserved.
I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes growth.
1 Corinthians 3:6
2 Responses
Oooh there is so much truth in what you say here Laurie! Sometimes it’s the little shards left alone that leave ugly scar tissue and or that foreign object brings on infection, forcing one to miss work and pay for a hospital visit. The ripple becomes bigger and bigger and brings more and more people into that selfish circle.
May we remain so sensitive to sin that the tiniest shard is removed immediately because we limp instantly! I want that to be true of me.